My map shows Baal Zephon to be on the Mediterranean Sea, so doesn’t this prove the crossing of the Red Sea to be allegorical?
Question:
I found an old map in my Tanach that shows Baal Zephon was on the Mediterranean with a thin ridge to the east. I note that both the Torah and the King James Version gives "the sea" for the crossing. This indicates to me that in the subsequent verses that hold "Moses brought us through the Red Sea" are allegorical. Would you like me to send you a copy of the map?
Answer:
"Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea" (Exodus 14:2).
If you are able to make and send a scanned copy of the map, I'll take a look at it, but there is no need to go to the expense of mailing it.
You do realize that archaeologists have not located Baal Zephon. Any map simply contains the map maker's best guess as to where the site might be located. Even an old map, say from the 1800s, was created thousands of years after the fact. To take the work of uninspired men working far after the events and state that this constitutes proof that the crossing of the Red Sea is allegorical is humorous at best.
The Hebrew word for "sea" is yam and refers to any large body of water. It was not exclusively used for the Mediterranean Sea. Deuteronomy 3:17 is an example of this word being used in conjunction with the Sea of Arabah (the Salt Sea or the Dead Sea). Joshua 12:3 also uses the word in connection with the Sea of Chinneroth (the Sea of Galilee). For that matter, we know that the reference to the sea in Exodus 14:2 was to the Red Sea because prior we read, "So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 13:18) and afterward, we read, "Pharaoh's chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea" (Exodus 15:4). Notice in the second verse the use of both a general "the sea" and a specific name "the Red Sea."
